Mailblocks Makes No-Spam Service Simpler

On Monday, Mailblocks is set to introduce a new version of its spam-free email service that dramatically simplifies the process of fighting spam.

Mailblocks.com currently provides a $9.95/year Web-based email service that receives, sends and archives email, and serves as a front end for other SMTP and POP3 accounts. Mailblocks blocks 100 percent of all spam with no false positives, executives say, by using a “challenge/response” system to eliminate automated spamming.

On Monday, Mailblocks.com will roll out an improved challenge-response system, Challenge/Response 2.0, that aggregates the responses to challenges across the entire system. The update will significantly cut back on the number of challenges issued to individuals who interact with Mailblocks clients, dramatically lessening the “hassle factor”, according to Mailblocks executives.

“You can take the world’s greatest email services, and what (users) don’t like about their current email boils down to three complaints: one was spam, and it was far and away number one,” said Phil Goldman, chief executive at Mailblocks and the former founder of WebTV Networks.

Email services have come up with several methods to fight spam: Bayesian filtering, which attempts to block spam by applying several layers of intelligent filters; blacklists, which block spam from certain ISPs or email addresses; whitelists, which only accept spam from approved addresses, and more complicated token-based systems, which attempt to force the sender to “pay”, either through time or money, for his email to be accepted.

Token based systems are a complicated form of challenge/response systems, which can be effective but annoying. Mailblocks’ previous system required users to verify their identity by clicking on a link, and its new system asks users to identify a series of seven random numbers from an image file. Before Challenge/Response 2.0, each person that wanted to email a Mailblocks user was forced to go through the identification process.

“The big question about challenge response has always been: is it worth the tradeoff to have people fill out these challenges?” Goldman said.

Mailblocks’ goal is to fight spam email, or more specifically the automated servers which send them. By challenging a (hopefully) human user to read back the random numbers contained within a particular image file, the service can identify that email address as a human user. While Mailblocks won’t automatically prevent a third party from sending his favorite cookie recipe to his entire list of friends, the service will prevent automated ads for herbal Viagra.

Now, for example, if actor George Clooney wants to email a Mailblocks user for the first time, he may be challenged. After he completes the Mailblocks challenge procedure, he will be entered into the company’s overall database, and will not need to be rechallenged again for several months, or possibly ever. If the system detects that email originating from Clooney’s email address contains spam-like characteristics, however, he may be challenged again, Goldman said.

Sight-impaired or blind users can email support@mailblocks.com to complete the challenge process. “It’s such a small number, that right now we can do it manually,” Goldman said.

The approved list isn’t quite a whitelist, Goldman said. “It’s more like a census.”

Moreover, the service can input address lists and harvest lists of sent email that a user has sent using a third-party POP3 or SMTP account, such as Hotmail. Each address is added to a “people picker” friends list, and the address is also added to Mailblocks’ “approved” list.

If a user wants to subscribe to a mailing list, he can provide the listserver a “tracker” email: a Mailblocks email with a unique personal Identification number (PIN) at the end that the user can pick. If, for example, the user begins receiving spam addressed to the tracker address, then he can quickly identify the culprit and turn off the tracker. Up to five trackers can be used at any one time; a user will likely have to resubscribe to the list.

Currently, the Mailblocks service costs $9.95 for year, although the company is running a discount that allows users to buy three years of service for the same $9.95 fee. The service is designed only for the Microsoft Windows OS and Internet Explorer 5.01 and 6.0 browsers; Mac support is currently in beta with OS X and System 9.2 with the Safari and IE browsers. A site FAQ notes that the company currently has trouble accessing some POP3 email servers used by Mail.com and AT&T Worldnet.

Future upgrades will allow the ability to not only read email from third-party services, but to author emails using the return address of that service, Goldman said.

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